The Ballad of Mattias Juno
by L.A.Ranger
Summary: The story of a retired NCR Ranger who's questing with a grumpy disposition and a sequoia to give some centurions a piece of his mind.
1. Chapter 1

The Ballad of Mattias Juno

Part I:The End, The Beginning.

By L.A. Ranger

Sergeant Mattias Juno looked down at the box sitting in his lap. Just Mattias now, he thought, as he ran his fingers over the top of the box, feeling the bronze seal of the two-headed bear. Taking a deep breath, he opened the box, there was no golden glow upon his face, only the damp air collecting in his beard, and the heavy revolver inside. Mattias gazed upon the intricate engravings, his eyes coming to a dead stop over the words on the barrel 'For Honorable Service.'

How honorable had he been? His last twenty years had been spent as an enforcer, and a manhunter, keeping tribals and raiders in the california area in line, all in the name of the Bear. He had gained no friends, no lovers, no family. All he had to his name was a shitty apartment, a hard-collected armory, and a table of empty bottles staring him down, knowingly. He raised the gun up from it's case, flipping it around he read the engraving on the otherside, 'Against All Tyrants.'

Mattias was a tyrant. He had driven fear into the hearts of men, women, and children alike who stood up against the Republic's mad grab for land and resources. But he didn't hate the Republic, he knew this kind of hard work had to be done, but no longer by him. Looking at the butt of the grip was the brass plate, engraved upon were the last words, '20 Years.'

Mattias could remember when he joined the Republic, twenty-five years ago. He had mostly been a guard but his defense of a caravan against a raider gang had gotten both him and his best friend promoted to the Rangers. His friend went off east and died, fighting the iron-clad giants of the brotherhood. He had killed two-hundred and thirty-seven men and women, some hard working people, some troublesome bandits, all of them left drops of blood on his hands until they were overflowing.

Mattias had retired from the Rangers, two weeks ago. He didn't like retirement, it gave him too much time to think of what he's done and get drunk. He looked up at his wall, which had a propaganda poster on it, showing the helmet of the 'Legate' leading Caesar's army out east. The man had an ego, an army, and a bad temperament against anything he didn't control. He tossed the gun's box aside and stood upright hastily, he raised his gun to the poster, vowed that this gun would kill this true tyrant, and caesar too. He pulled the trigger, leaving a fist sized crater in his wall. He grabbed his weapons, the Sequoia, his sawn-off shotgun, and his well-used and well-maintained fire axe; Timber. He donned his armor, a set of LAPD riot gear, the paint of the bear ground away. He was not part of the NCR anymore, he was a citizen of the Wasteland, and he wouldn't rest until he ended the Tyrany of the Mojave.


	2. Chapter 2

The Ballad Of Mattias Juno Part 1

"You have three seconds to give me a reason not to shoot you." Mattias held the pickpocket's wrist firmly in his left hand, his right held the Sequoia up to the man's forehead. They stood in the courtyard of Vault City. "One."

"I can get you papers to trade with the Amenities Office!" The pickpocket was at least taking Matt' seriously. People nearby took notice but did nothing but watch.

"I have all the supplies I need, try again. Two"

"I know the area around here; can take you anywhere you want."

"I'm taking the road east to New Vegas, it's pretty easy to navigate, pavement and signs most of the way. Last chance." Mattias pulled back the hammer on the Sequoia, he could feel the fat slug inside itching to dive into his skull.

"I can get you in with the Families in Vegas." Mattias held the gun there in silent cognition. While he may not plan to do much in New Vegas itself, it was a center for intelligent life in the arid Mojave, and he would prefer a casino hotel room over some cramped apartment in one of the slums adjacent to the strip. He'd heard straight up horror stories about Freeside. He holstered the Sequoia and brought his hand up to firmly grip the man by the throat.

"I better get a detailed description of how before I choose to let you go." Mattias' stern gaze never left the dark man's eyes face.

"I got a brother who works for one of the families, the Chairmen. He got me a passport to get into the strip way back when. But I wanted to come out west and see the origins of democracy and-"

"Okay! That's enough! Don't need your life story, but while you feel so damn talkative, what's your name?" Matt knew he wouldn't really like this blabber mouth.

"Oh, my name's Silas, my brother's a floor manager at the Tops Casino, he can give you a bunch of chips and….. stuff." Matt didn't need casino chips; he disliked gambling except for the occasional game of caravan. He took a few moments, his hand still around Silas's neck, pondering a way to keep him to his deal. Fear had always been his strong suit.

"All I need is a room and some whiskey, and for that, not only will I not kill you, Silas, but I'll even protect you as we travel the Divide to get there." Mattias held in a sadistic smile as he saw Silas cringe, the Divide ate up people who went into it, full of death claws, ghouls, crazed robots, and atomic warheads strewn haphazardly throughout. Mattias knew it wasn't the safest route, but he was also hopeful he might find some pre-war tech to help him take on the Legate.

Silas practically squeaked his objections, "But the Divide is dangerous, almost no one gets through to the other side!"

"Well that worst the could happen to you is you could die Silas, besides, do you really want to stay around in this xenophobic city?"

"No, but I don't want to die you crazy fuck!" Silas was such a cry baby, if Matt' wasn't enjoying this so much he might just let him go.

"In the divide you have good chances because you're travelling with a ranger… Or you could try your luck fighting that same ranger who isn't afraid of the Divide… I'll even make it a gentleman's duel, give you a gun, might give you a slight chance…" The collar was on and the lock latched, Silas was a coward, and probably an idiot in many respects, but even he could figure out which option involved him living longer.

"Fine you wrinkly old NCR prick, but don't expect me to share my supplies." Matt' looked over the 'pack' Silas had with him, and figured that, if it was full, he'd be leaching off Mattias's supplies within a couple days. So would a clean hotel room be worth taking a pocket-snatching pansy to New Vegas. Hopefully it would be.

"So, ranger guy… Can you lend me a gun?" Nope, this was going to suck.


	3. Chapter 3

The Ballad of Mattias Juno Part 2

Silas sat at the camp fire, familiarizing himself with his 'new' 9mm pistol. Mattias had purchased it for Silas back at Vault City, as well as a weapon repair kit to try to get it working. Character building he said, it'd be fun he said. He had spent hours with a wire brush to grind away the decades of rust that had accumulated on the gun. Silas doubted the gun was worth saving, but Mattias decided it was good enough for the time being. Easy for him to say, he had the iron of the bear on his hip, not a rusted out 9mm.

Silas finished cleaning the inside of the slide and rubbed in the gun oil Mattias had given him. He slowly put the gun back together like he had been shown, and slid in the magazine, racking the slide and flicking the safety off. Mattias looked up when he heard the click and watched as Silas tossed his empty pork and beans can out away from the camp, quickly bringing up the pistol and firing, sending a hot 9mm parabellum round faster than the speed of sound, to bury itself into the topsoil several inches off target. Mattias chuckled. Silas sighed. After he sat down disappointed Mattias piped in his two cents; "You're not a cowboy."

"Huh?" Silas questioned half-heartedly.

"You can't whip around and shoot a man dead Silas, you're only seventeen, I've been doing this for twenty-six years, which is the only reason I can. You need to take your time, actually look down the sights and such." Mattias hoped he could figure it out, he didn't feel like doing the reach around demonstration on anyone, let alone an annoying young man, like Silas. Silas stood back up and brought up the gun in a two-handed grip, his arms full extended as he took a few moments to line up a shot and fired, sending the tin can flipping over the ground. Silas smiled and followed the can out of camp as he slowly unloaded his entire magazine into it. By which time Silas and the can were at the edge of the cliff, before them was the vast expanse of the Divide. Silas turned back to Mattias, who had finally decided to get up and walk over.

"I never knew shooting was so easy, I guess I'll be able to be a great help to you Matt, just point me at them!" Mattias barely controlled his uproarious laughter as he walked past Silas to the can, and kicked it over the edge. In a smooth movement he had drawn the Sequoia and fired, striking the can as it tumbled through the air. He emptied all five rounds of the sequoia into the can as it danced before it hit the bottom. Mattias looked back up at Silas.

"Do something as extraordinary as that, then we'll talk about you helping in fights, now go pack the camp. I think it's time to descend into this time capsule hell." Silas grumbled and went back to the camp as Mattias looked out over the cliff, loading fresh rounds into the Sequoia, readying himself for the death claws, the ghouls, the rampant machines of old, and the creatures of the dark that lurk bellow.

Mattias would be ready for them, ready to fight bullet and blade against them all. Ready to hack and chop apart anything that got in his way. He had complete confidence in his ability to make it through alive with a wake of death behind him. He was unfortunately very pessimistic of how well Silas would survive.

((Thank you to everyone who's following this story as it develops, please leave a review, good or bad, as I value all input. Also I suggest you all follow the story _In Damnatio Memoraie_ by Aldebaran 07, as we are planning a collaborated battle between our protagonists in the future.))


	4. Chapter 4

The Ballad of Mattias Juno Part 3: This Axe Was Made For Chopping…

Mattias and Silas were crammed together tighter than YumYum Deviled Eggs, a Deathclaw at the opening of their crevice trying to claw in at them. Mattias pulled up the Sequoia and recited his Three Steps to Success™.

Step One: Aim. Easy enough, the Deathclaw was charging him head on, his mouth open in a bestial roar.

Step Two: Steady. Mattias calmed himself a moment, feeling his heart rate passively, timing the shot perfectly.

Step Three: Fire. The .45-70 Armor Piercing round punched through the roof of the Deathclaw's mouth, driving into the brain past the dense bone.

One down, two more to go. Mattias and Silas had made it a fair distance through the Divide without having to deal with any hostilities, but while travelling through the labyrinth of a fallen building a small Deathclaw pack had emerged from the woodwork and attacked them. Mattias and Silas were squeezed into a crevice in the wall as the Deathclaws clawed and tried to get in. Two lay dead, Silas was wedged behind Mattias. Mattias was very disgruntled. The kind of disgruntled where you're actually enraged. The kind of enraged where you're heavily tempted to punch a Deathclaw in the face. Mattias had a much better option than that however. Struggling in the confined spaces Mattias switched his weapons, and tossed a flash bang out into the room.

It was enough to stun the tank-fleshed behemoths as Mattias sprang out from the crevice, swinging his axe in and upward arc to connect with the first Deathclaw's throat, the special cosmic blade digging in with ease. Yanking the blade free Mattias charged the next death claw, slashing the axe into its skull with a wild one-handed grip. The first Deathclaw was flailing on the ground as it bled out, unable to breathe as well. Silas emerged from the crevice and shoved the barrel of a pilfered flare gun into the throat wound, firing the molten hot magnesium round down its gullet. Mattias finished off the final Deathclaw, decapitating it with a final chop of the fire axe. Breathing heavily from the heavy exertion, Mattias placed his axe back in its customized sheath on his back, feeling the words etched into the shaft as he did: 'Sic Semper Tyrannis.'

Silas was grinning ear to ear, and Mattias almost thought he deserved the victory. Almost.

"What's got you so happy Silas? Dreaming of your boyfriend from Freeside?" Silas gets very defensive about that kind of teasing; apparently he had a bad experience with some of the other Omertas due to his romantic interests, that experience being why he fled Freeside for the west. Mattias didn't care who someone was interested in, as long as that person's interests didn't involve him, he had given up on love long ago.

"At least I have the ability to love old man. Have you ever had a girlfriend?" Silas has toughened up emotionally; good as far as Mattias cared, but he didn't completely enjoy not being able to bug the teenager.

"Yeah, a long time ago there was this girl from the Hub, fell crazy in love, lots of sex and booze and long summer nights. But that was back when I had emotions."

"Ever miss her? Or your emotions while we're on the subject?" Mattias stopped what he was doing, which was stripping some meat from the Deathclaws. He hadn't thought about Jenny for a long time, his heart crusted over with the blood of his victims. But like a spear, thought of her pierced it all, and almost made a grown man cry. There are many reasons why Mattias always wears his helmet, this is one.

"Every now and then... let's keep moving flare boy."

"Don't call me that!" Two points for Mattias, he could still rile up Silas.

"Then get a real weapon." Mattias chuckled as they left the four behemoths in their wake, there was sure to be many, many more on the long road ahead.

"Not my fault you're too cheap to get me more than a shitty pistol and all I could find in these ruins was a fucking flare gun." Mattias could tell this would not be one of those long peaceful and quiet walks he loved so much.

-And now it's up to you readers what that weapon is, I set up a Poll on my profile page for what weapon Silas will soon get, PM me if there's a problem with it cause I'm new to the system.


	5. Chapter 5

The Ballad Of Mattias Juno Part 4- Two Wrongs Make A Right

L.A. Ranger

"So tell me about your girl"

"No"

"Please, I told you about Tyler from Freeside."

"And I didn't ask you to, you shared freely."

"Still not fair if you won't tell me."

"Silas, my past is my business, not yours. Now come on, we've been in this valley long enough as it is."

"Fine." They trudged along silently, having just left their night-time refuge of an old armory, wherein Silas acquired a radio and Geiger-counter that he know wore on his belt. He also held a rusted, though not as bad as his pistol, hunting rifle, chambered for .308 rounds. It was a good gun, accurate, didn't seem to jam too much after Silas went at it all night with some steel wool.

But now they trekked along; occasionally fighting a stray marked man or tunneler, skirting around larger groups, eventually coming to the Silo with a staircase to bring them up and out of the hellish place. They entered the silo via a bay door near the floor of the valley, eventually ending up in an office room adjacent to the silo itself. They rummaged around it looking for any supplies left behind, finding a few bottles of irradiated water, a few pills of Rad-X, and some adult Holo-tapes, simply marked with an XXX, kept in a locked drawer.

"The world was about ready to fall apart, and this guy was more interested in having his smut with him than being ready." Silas had a playful grin on his face.

"The desk belonged to Sgt. Samantha Rampin, wonder what SHE was into." Silas pondered that, and tossed the holo-tapes into his pack, to view later for sure. "Come on Silas; let's check the General's Office."

It was a lush office, complete with an intricate oak desk and a side table with bottles of scotch and dust-filled tumblers. Above the desk on the back wall was a double-barrel shotgun. The stock of the shotgun has ivory inlays and gold engravings along the metalwork.

Silas quickly hopped onto the desk, eager to claim this prize. Mattias had other plans, pulling Silas down by the tail of his leather jacket. "Boy, you need to think, why hasn't a marked man or some scavenger taken this off the wall?"

Silas regained his footing and walked closer to the plaque and, looking close, could see a small wire creating a circuit with the barrel of the shotgun, if the shotgun were removed; it would clearly trigger some security system. With a sigh he admitted, "It's booby-trapped."

"Good, now try to figure out what the trap is." Mattias sat on the desk and watched as Silas started to look around the room for clues. He had a lot of potential, but he was still young, and quick to the trigger. After several minutes Silas couldn't find anything obvious, "Is it just a security alarm?"

"I doubt it, this was set up by the General, and if he planned on picking up that shotgun, it would probably have more effect than alerting his secretaries there was an enemy in his office. No, he'd want something more immediate." Mattias walked over to the walls, running his hand over one of the only sections left unadorned by picture frames or bookcases. There was a seam in the metal panel right were the bookcase began, and when he leaned his back to the wall and looked out, he saw there was nothing obstructing his view of either the door or the general and his desk, all pots and the coat rack where in the corners of the room on the side of the door. "He has guard dogs."

"Huh?" Silas didn't quite get it.

"Behind these panels are probably turrets, or sentry bots, ready to pop out at any moment to defend the General. Of course the war happened, General died in his boots filling out paper work, and his guardians have waited since. Anyways, hands off the shotgun Silas, it's not worth the trouble." Frustrated, Silas kicked over the chair with the General's skeleton. They walked back out into the office than took the series of hallways leading to the silo, and its staircase up. As they walked in their usual silence they came to the entrance door, and Silas pushed the button to open it. The door opened to several individuals, masked but clearly human. Each carried a rifle or shotgun, and they were cluttered around a small fire for warmth and light in the dark silo. They wore armor of leather and spare parts. Raiders.

One of them had looked towards the sounds of the door opening, and started to bring up his shotgun from his loose grip. Before he could draw a bead Mattias had caused his brain stem to simply stop existing with a quick shot from the Sequoia. Mattias was able to drop one more before he took returning fire, a hollow point from a lever-action rifle digging into his shoulder plate, and then he felt a sharp blow to his sternum push him off his feet. A bean-bag from a single-barrel shotgun, these raiders were either idiots who couldn't read or desperate for ammo. Either way, Mattias wasn't dead, and he showed the shotgun wielder the advantage of a real bullet, creating a large divot where his ribcage used to be. The raider was avenged though when a looted service rifle sent a round through Mattias's shin.

As Mattias groaned on the floor, Silas killed off two raiders with his hunting rifle before handing it to Mattias and linking his arms around the older man's shoulders and hastily dragging him away as more raiders appeared from the shadows of the silo. Silas thought quite loudly to himself that this must be their base, as he kept dragging the still firing Mattias down the halls. When more entered the hall, guns ready, they were met by the grenade, freshly thrown from the ranger's hand. Taking the much needed break in the attack Silas ran/drag Mattias back to the offices, trying to work out a plan. That's when he remembered an old poster he had seen in an office building, about how wearing an ID badge could save you from automated security.

He found such a badge at the Sergeant's desk and handed it to Mattias, before dragging him into the General's office; he could hear the raiders organizing to come after them, setting up a loose plan, more time. Silas got the ranger down behind the thick desk and grabbed the General's ID badge and clipped it to his jacket as he rifled through the desk looking for ammo. Finding a box of 12-gauge shells he tears it apart grabbing two and hopping back onto the desk, and waiting. He doesn't have to wait long before a raider walks in, wearing a suit of metal armor, his hair in a wild dyed mohawk. As he walked slowly towards the desk more raiders followed.

"Hey young'un, how about you just give up and kill yourself?" The leader of the raiders was seemingly high, probably on jet. Silas could almost see his eyes dilated from several yards away. He wondered how well wide open eyes deal with flares. He yanked his flare gun free from his waistband, firing off the flare at the leader, just to distract them. Silas jumped to the wall, his hands wrapping around the shotgun and yanking it free from its mount.

For a moment, nothing happened but for Silas sliding his two shells into the shotgun and closing it shut, but then the wall panels slid down, revealing to freshly awakened Sentry bots. It took but a moment for them to scan the room, and as far as they saw, the General and one of his office aides were hiding behind a desk while several armed combatants stood in the office. The raiders were summarily eviscerated by the combined heavy weapons fire as both sentry bots unleashed their dual mini gun armaments. The heavy bolt-buckets decided they were finished and return to their stations inside the wall.. Silas pulled a stim pack out of Mattias's pack and jabbed it into him between his armor plating, activating the plunger. "Wait here old man."

Silas got up and walked over to the raiders, his new shotgun held loosely in his hand. The raider leader lay near death, his legs and lower torso useless after being shredded apart. He coughed up blood as he was quickly fading. "Any lost words spiky-hair?"

"Fuck-" The raiders words were cut off by Silas finishing him.

"Sorry, didn't feel like waiting." Silas reloaded his shotgun and went back to Mattias. "Can you walk?" Mattias was wrapping a bandage around the bullet wound in his shin

"Of course I can… In a second." Mattias placed his armored plates back on his leg and gave himself a shot of Med-X. Using Silas's rifle as a cane he got himself up and pulled out his Sequoia, reloading it with one hand, his other hand bearing his weight on the rifle. "Alright, let's go finish off these uncivil bastards."

-Sorry this chapter took so long, but enjoy. Also, from the results of the poll Silas got a hunting rifle and his shotgun.

-And to whom it may concern, don't describe me as trying to do anything the way another author does it, judge my writing not my process.


End file.
